How to Find Cheap Last-Minute Flights: 10 Strategies That Work

The Truth About Last-Minute Flight Prices

The conventional wisdom says "book early for the cheapest flights." That is true most of the time, for most routes. But the conventional wisdom misses an important reality: airlines would rather sell a seat for $200 than fly it empty. Every empty seat on a departing flight is revenue that is gone forever. This creates genuine opportunities for flexible travelers to find cheap last-minute flights -- if you know where and how to look.

The key word is flexible. If you need to fly from Chicago to Miami on a specific date next week, you will probably pay full price. If you are open to flying somewhere interesting within the next 7 to 14 days and can be flexible on the exact destination, departure city, and travel dates, the landscape changes dramatically.

This guide covers 10 strategies that experienced spontaneous travelers use to find last-minute flights that cost a fraction of what the airlines hope you will pay. Some require true flexibility. Others work even with specific destinations in mind.

Strategy 1: Google Flights Explore Map

Best for: Travelers who are flexible on destination

Google Flights Explore (google.com/travel/explore) is the single most powerful tool for finding cheap last-minute travel. Instead of searching a specific route, it shows you a map of the world with prices from your departure city to hundreds of destinations.

How to use it:

1. Go to google.com/travel/explore
2. Enter your departure city
3. Set your travel dates to the upcoming week or two
4. Leave the destination blank
5. The map populates with flight prices to destinations worldwide

Pro tip: Toggle between "round trip" and "one-way" to see different pricing. Set the trip length to "weekend" or "1-2 weeks" depending on your availability. The map often reveals destinations you would never have considered at prices that make them impossible to refuse.

Real examples of what this reveals: A search from New York for the upcoming weekend might show roundtrip flights to San Juan for $89, Reykjavik for $199, or Cartagena for $245. From Los Angeles, you might see Cabo San Lucas for $109, Tokyo for $399, or Lima for $289. These prices exist specifically because airlines are trying to fill unsold seats.

Strategy 2: Skiplagged and Hidden-City Ticketing

Best for: Domestic US flights and some international routes

Hidden-city ticketing exploits the way airlines price connecting flights. Sometimes a flight from New York to Chicago costs $400, but a flight from New York through Chicago to Little Rock costs $180. If Chicago is your real destination, you book the cheaper flight and simply get off at the connection.

Skiplagged.com surfaces these pricing anomalies automatically.

Important restrictions:

• This only works with one-way tickets or on the last leg of a round trip. If you skip a leg, the airline cancels all subsequent legs.
• You cannot check bags (they will be routed to the final destination on the ticket).
• Airlines actively discourage this and it may violate their terms of service. Doing it occasionally for personal travel carries minimal risk, but frequent use on a single airline loyalty account could result in account consequences.
• Only works for flights where your real destination is the connecting city.

Strategy 3: Airline Error Fares

Best for: Travelers who can book within minutes and travel within days to weeks

Error fares occur when airlines or online travel agencies accidentally publish prices far below the intended fare. A business-class flight to Tokyo for $300 roundtrip. A first-class ticket to Europe for $500. These are genuine mistakes in the pricing systems, and they happen more often than you might expect.

Where to find them:

• Secret Flying (secretflying.com): The most comprehensive error fare aggregator. Check it daily.
• The Points Guy (thepointsguy.com/deals): Curates deal posts including error fares.
• Fly.com Deals and Scott's Cheap Flights / Going (going.com): Email alerts for unusually low fares.
• FlyerTalk Forums (flyertalk.com): The "Mileage Run Deals" and "Premium Fare Deals" forums are where error fares are first spotted.
• Reddit r/travel and r/churning: Community members post error fares in real-time.

Will the airline honor it? Most of the time, yes. US Department of Transportation rules generally require airlines to honor ticketed fares, even if priced in error. International rules vary. Book the fare immediately when you see it (do not wait even an hour), and do not call the airline to ask about it (this alerts them to the error).

Strategy 4: Positioning Flights

Best for: Finding cheaper departures from nearby airports

Your home airport may not have the best last-minute prices, but an airport one to three hours away might. A positioning flight (or drive) to a different departure city can save hundreds of dollars.

Example: A last-minute flight from Denver to Paris might cost $900, but a flight from Dallas to Paris on the same dates might cost $400. A positioning flight from Denver to Dallas costs $70-100. Total savings: $400+.

How to search:

• Google Flights allows you to search from multiple airports simultaneously. Enter "NYC" instead of "JFK" to see results from JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark.
• For bigger savings, search from other nearby cities entirely. If you live in Hartford, check flights from Boston, NYC, and Providence.
• Kiwi.com is excellent for combining positioning flights with main flights into a single itinerary.

Strategy 5: One-Way Tickets on Two Different Airlines

Best for: International round trips

Airlines price round-trip tickets as a unit, which sometimes means both legs are expensive because one direction has limited availability. Booking two separate one-way tickets on different airlines often produces a lower total than any single airline's round trip.

Example: A round-trip from San Francisco to London might cost $900 on United. But a one-way SFO to London on Norse Atlantic for $199 plus a one-way London to SFO on Icelandair (via Reykjavik) for $249 totals $448 -- half the price.

Tools for this:

• Google Flights: Book each leg separately and compare
• Kiwi.com: Automatically combines one-way fares across airlines
• Momondo: Strong at surfacing mixed-airline options

Strategy 6: Nearby Airport Arbitrage

Best for: Destinations served by multiple airports

Many destinations have multiple airports with dramatically different pricing. Flying into a secondary airport and taking ground transportation to your final destination can save hundreds.

Key examples:

Destination	Expensive Airport	Cheap Alternative	Ground Transport
Paris	CDG	Beauvais (BVA) - budget carriers, or Brussels (BRU)	Bus 75 min / Thalys train 80 min
London	Heathrow (LHR)	Stansted (STN) or Luton (LTN)	Stansted Express 47 min
Tokyo	Narita (NRT) or Haneda (HND)	Osaka Kansai (KIX)	Shinkansen 2.5 hrs
Barcelona	El Prat (BCN)	Girona (GRO) or Reus (REU)	Bus 75-90 min
Milan	Malpensa (MXP)	Bergamo (BGY)	Bus 60 min
New York	JFK	Newark (EWR) or Stewart (SWF)	Path train 30 min / bus 90 min

Strategy 7: Red-Eye and Off-Peak Timing

Best for: Budget-conscious travelers with flexible schedules

Flights departing between 10 PM and 6 AM (red-eyes) are consistently 20-40% cheaper than daytime flights on the same route. Similarly, flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are typically the cheapest days of the week.

The optimal last-minute search pattern:

• Search for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday departures
• Look at red-eye or early morning departures (5-7 AM)
• Return on a Tuesday or Wednesday
• Avoid Sunday evening returns (the most expensive time slot for domestic US flights)

For international flights: Departures on weekdays are cheaper than weekends. The absolute cheapest windows for transatlantic flights are typically Tuesday and Wednesday departures with Saturday or Tuesday returns.

Strategy 8: Consolidator Fares and Wholesale Rates

Best for: Business class and premium cabin seats

Consolidators buy unsold seats from airlines at wholesale rates and resell them at prices below the airline's published fares. This is most significant for premium cabin tickets, where the retail price might be $5,000 but a consolidator offers the same seat for $2,500-3,500.

Reputable consolidator platforms:

• FareGeek (faregeek.com): Specializes in business and first-class consolidator rates
• ASAP Tickets (asaptickets.com): Often has deeply discounted premium cabin fares
• CheapOair (cheapoair.com): Mixes regular fares with consolidator inventory
• Airfare.com (airfare.com): Focused on consolidator and contract fares

How to verify legitimacy: Book through established companies with physical addresses and phone numbers. Pay with a credit card (for chargeback protection). Confirm the booking directly with the airline after purchase.

Strategy 9: Airline Flash Sales and Last-Minute Pages

Best for: Travelers who monitor deals regularly

Several airlines maintain dedicated "last-minute deals" or "sale fares" pages that are updated weekly or daily.

Airline-specific deal pages:

• Southwest Airlines: Check southwest.com sale page weekly (typically published on Tuesdays)
• JetBlue: JetBlue.com/deals publishes weekly sales
• Frontier: FlyFrontier.com often has fares as low as $19-29 for last-minute domestic routes
• Spirit: spirit.com/deals posts weekly bargains
• Norwegian / Play / LEVEL: Budget transatlantic carriers frequently discount unsold seats close to departure
• AirAsia, Scoot, Cebu Pacific: Budget Asian carriers run flash sales with domestic and short-haul fares under $20

Email alerts to set up:

• Going (going.com, formerly Scott's Cheap Flights): $49/year for premium alerts. Excellent at surfacing genuinely cheap fares from your home airport.
• Airfarewatchdog (airfarewatchdog.com): Human-curated fare alerts.
• Google Flights price tracking: Set up price tracking for routes you fly regularly, and Google will email you when prices drop.

Strategy 10: Miles and Points for Last-Minute Awards

Best for: Travelers with accumulated airline miles or credit card points

Award availability (seats bookable with miles) often opens up in the final 1-2 weeks before departure as airlines release unsold inventory for redemption. This is the opposite of the cash pricing dynamic, where prices rise close to departure.

Where to search for last-minute awards:

• ExpertFlyer (expertflyer.com): Searches award availability across multiple airlines. $9.99/month.
• AwardLogic and Point.me (point.me): Search transfer partner award availability across all major credit card programs.
• Airline websites directly: Search on the airline's website for "use miles" or "redeem miles" to see award availability.

Best programs for last-minute awards:

• Delta SkyMiles: Delta regularly makes seats available at the last minute, though pricing varies.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards: No blackout dates, ever. Any seat available for purchase is available for points.
• JetBlue TrueBlue: No blackout dates. Particularly good last-minute domestic award availability.
• United MileagePlus: Close-in award availability is decent, though there is a $75 close-in booking fee for awards within 21 days (waived for Premier members).

When Last-Minute Is NOT Cheaper

Honest expectation-setting is important. Last-minute flights are genuinely cheap in these scenarios:

• Budget airlines with unsold inventory
• Off-peak routes and seasons
• Midweek departures
• Routes with heavy competition
• Error fares and flash sales

Last-minute flights are almost always expensive in these scenarios:

• Peak holiday periods (Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer school breaks)
• Business routes on Monday mornings and Friday evenings
• Routes with limited competition (small city to small city)
• International flights during that destination's peak tourist season
• Any route where the flight is already 85%+ booked

The flexibility premium: The more flexible you are on destination, dates, times, and routing, the more you save. If you must fly a specific route on a specific date, last-minute will almost always cost more than advance booking.

A Last-Minute Flight Search Workflow

When you decide to travel spontaneously, follow this workflow in order:

1. Check Google Flights Explore with your departure city and flexible dates to see what is cheapest overall
2. Check Secret Flying and Going for any active error fares or deals from your area
3. Search your preferred route on Google Flights, Skiplagged, and Kiwi.com simultaneously
4. Check nearby departure airports and nearby arrival airports
5. Try the one-way trick -- search each direction separately on different airlines
6. Check airline deal pages for the carriers serving your departure airport
7. Search award availability if you have miles or transferable points
8. Set price alerts on Google Flights if you can wait 1-3 days before committing

The entire workflow takes 20-30 minutes and can reveal price differences of hundreds of dollars compared to a single search on Expedia or the airline's website.

Plan Smarter, Travel More Spontaneously

The best last-minute travel happens at the intersection of preparation and spontaneity. Having the right tools bookmarked, the right debit and credit cards in your wallet, and a passport that is always current means you can say "yes" when a $199 roundtrip to Lisbon appears on a Tuesday afternoon.

TripGenie helps you turn last-minute flight deals into actual trips by generating complete itineraries in minutes. Found a cheap fare to Tokyo departing Friday? Open TripGenie, input your dates, and have a full itinerary -- including neighborhoods to explore, restaurants to try, and day-by-day plans -- before you finish packing.

Spontaneous travel is one of the great joys of having the right systems in place. These 10 strategies will not guarantee cheap flights every time, but they will dramatically increase the number of times you find a deal worth taking. And every deal you take is another trip you get to live.